Student spending up by 28 per cent

30 January 2004

Student spending has increased by almost a third in the past four years, a new survey claims.

The Office for National Statistics found that students in higher education now spend an average of £7,000 a year, with total spending for students in England and Wales up 28 per cent last year (15 per cent after inflation) compared with figures for the 1998-99 academic year.

Living costs made up about two-thirds of the total in both periods. Students in London spent £1,000 more than those studying elsewhere.

The government figures are released just two days after Prime Minister Tony Blair won a narrow victory in a vote on increasing tuition fees in the House of Commons.

The ONS social trends report also revealed that children are leaving the nest later. In England 56 per cent of men and 37 per cent of women aged 20-24 lived at home with their parents in spring 2003.

In 2001-02 more than a quarter (28 per cent) of households in Britain reported having no savings. Among lone parents of working age the proportion was 67 per cent.

The data showed that three-quarters of all adults in the UK owned or used a mobile phone in May 2003. This included more than 20 per cent of pensioners over 75.

In 2001 about half the people from Bangladeshi or black African communities in England and Wales lived in social rented accommodation, compared with a national average of under a fifth.

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